Crashes on slick roads

Head-on collision shuts down Wilmington Notch

November 30, 2012

Slippery roads may have been a factor in two car accidents Thursday evening.

A section of state Route 86 between Lake Placid and Wilmington was shut down temporarily at about 4 p.m. Thursday while emergency crews responded to a head-on collision.

Meanwhile, the Bloomingdale and Saranac Lake volunteer fire departments were called to a motor vehicle accident on state Route 3 in Sugarbush, near the Clinton-Franklin county line. Saranac Lake personnel was turned away en route because no injuries were reported.

The National Weather Service's Burlington, Vt., station issued a special weather statement at 4:03 p.m. Thursday alerting motorists about hazardous driving conditions due to snow and falling temperatures.

Ray Brook-based state police said the Wilmington collision occurred near High Falls Gorge. Two vehicles were involved, and minor injuries were reported, they said this morning.

Wilmington fire Chief Lou Adragna told the Enterprise one person was knocked unconscious but was awake by the time fire and rescue personnel arrived at the scene.

"We had to extricate one person out of another vehicle," Adragna said.

Adragna said his department was at the scene for about 40 minutes. He said speed and slippery roads were likely factors in the collision. Two people were taken to the hospital by a Wilmington ambulance, and a third was taken to Adirondack Medical Center in Lake Placid by the Lake Placid Volunteer Ambulance Service. Names and conditions of the drivers and passenger weren't available this morning.

A pickup truck involved in the accident was "tore in two," Adragna said.

"It was an extended-cab, two-wheel-drive pickup truck," he said. "The actual engine and transmission were laying on the guardrail. ... We had to hook a truck to the one pickup to drag it out of the road so we could get the ambulances through.

"From what happened, it turned out very well."

Lake Placid Middle-High School student Heidi Peters said she was riding the school bus home to Wilmington at about 3 p.m., when the accident reportedly occurred. She said the school bus was stuck in traffic for about 50 minutes.

"It looked serious," Peters said. "You could see scraps of one of the cars stuck to the guardrail."

Lake Placid firefighters set up roadblocks at River Road, Northwood Road and at the intersection of state routes 86 and 73.

Lora Bushey of Wilmington said troopers were turning away traffic at the intersection of Route 86 and Fox Farm Road in Wilmington. She said troopers told her debris was being cleaned up as of about 4:20 p.m.